The Crimson Phoenix

Meeting an Idol.

The class was a bit quiet and there was no teacher there because they had a free period. Leo was in the class reading a book on gene development by Dr. Cartel B. Jenson. Logan looked at the book and smiled.

“Dr. Cartel...” He smiled. Leo looked at him, “Is a great scientist. Gene enhancement is a whole other level of science man.”

“It really is. I wish I could meet the man.” Leo said, looking at the picture of the author at the back of the book. Logan suddenly looked confused.

“Dude, so you don’t know?” He probed. Leo was confused and had no idea what he was talking about.

“Know what?” He inquired. Logan who was reading before but dropped his book to face him.

“The Hermit Research Laboratories THRL, is hosting an excursion. It has been two days now and you can still apply. He’ll be talking about his project and you can even get to see some other cool stuff.” He explained excitedly. THRL was a scientific research company which hosted various scientific projects and experiments. It was headed by a Biologist and businessman, Dr. Cartel B. Jensen. This man was Leo’s idol and he loved to do research on his works. His work on gene enhancement and modification was Leo’s favorite project.

Leo's eyes suddenly lit up and he was excited. He had lots of questions to ask and lots of topics to discuss with Dr. Cartel. Hearing about this opportunity, he couldn’t help but feel agitated. He suddenly thought of something and his mood went down immediately.

“Meeting Dr. Cartel will be exciting. I would love to apply now but THRL is at Leon City.” Leo claimed. Logan pursed his lips and face palmed. He wanted to smack Leo on the head and talk some sense into his head.

“Are you sure you are a fan of Dr. Cartel? If you were, you would monitor the news on THRL. Don’t you read the news? The headquarters was already transferred from New York City to Sky City. The lab is just an hour drive from here.” He explained with disdain in his voice. Leo was shocked. ‘So that means I get to meet Dr. Cartel,' he thought excitedly to himself. He was a fan of Dr. Cartel but he'd never really liked a celebrity to an extent of monitoring their every movement. He didn’t fall that much for people who knew not of his existence. He was only interested in his work and given that he was a genius, Leo liked him. ‘I just hope his personality is as good as his ideas.’ He thought again.

“Dude, you need to start knowing about your surroundings. Don’t just think about your life alone.” Logan blamed him. “THRL have their branches in four places. One of them is here, in Sky city. He decided to transform the branch here into his headquarters.” Logan continued. Leo was a bit confused as to why he would make that huge move. ‘For Dr. Cartel to transfer the headquarters to this place, it must mean that there’s something big and special here.’ He pondered.

“Hold on a second. When I was reading his book, he mentioned in it that the project was conducted in New York city, why did he have to come here?” Leo inquired. To him, it didn’t make any sense taking a big experiment from a big city to another city that was not as big. Logan shook his head and sighed. He was already fed up with Leo’s obliviousness.

“Sky Hills happens to be rich in some rare mineral that they need.” Logan revealed. Leo raised his brows in confusion. If Sky hills had some mineral resources they needed, shouldn’t they have discovered that a long while ago? And besides, they could just extract it and transport it to New York.

Logan suspected that Leo was still confused so he explained further, “They didn’t know that the mineral was here initially until...” he explained as the brought his laptop out and went to the web. He opened his browser and went straight to a bookmarked page and he showed him. It was based on the discovery of the new element which could be used for the gene enhancement project. “A recent discovery was made. They said that a rare element called ‘Albertium’ was needed for the project to be successful. It’s only found at the outskirts of Sky Hills, near the mountainous areas and just like the factor of productivity in economics, you have to put your industry near the source of materials needed.” Logan explained and joked.

Leo raised a brow and shot him an unamused gaze, “If THRL were selling their classified discoveries, I would’ve believed you but they are not even selling anything.”

Logan smirked, “You should’ve understood me when I said that. The point is, they need the ‘Albertium’ and Sky Hills is the only place they can get it. They are probably trying to cut the expenses of transporting the Albertium all the way here.” He said as he scrolled down to the page and Leo read through it.

He asked Logan for the company’s website and decided to apply for the excursion online on his phone. After he did, he saw that the excursion would last for three days. He and Logan planned to go on the second day, which was five days from then and on a Tuesday. ‘This is gonna be wicked.’ Leo thought excitedly and he was already having high hopes.

***********

It was ten o’clock in the morning. He'd already told Molly about his movements so she wouldn’t bother too much about him. He and Logan already set out for THRL after school hours and they boarded a taxi and arrived at the company after an hour. He was surprised to see that there were about nine other people there, explaining to the security guard about the excursion. ‘And here I thought this place was gonna be swarming with people,' Leo smiled inwardly. He looked closely at the people and what he saw made his eyes wide opened with shock. He saw Kelly Martin. Kelly was Leo’s classmate back at Sunshine city high school and she was his academic nemesis. He couldn’t believe she came all the way from Sunshine city just to meet Dr. Cartel.

“Kelly?!” He said with surprised tone. She looked at him and was shocked too.

“Leo?!” Kelly said with a shocked tone. Her eyes were wide open and she couldn’t believe that he was in Sky City. She wore navy blue jeans and a colorful blouse. She was blonde and her hair was tied into a bun which made her quite attractive.

Logan was confused, “So you know her?” He probed. Leo ignored him and approached Kelly.

“Wow, what’re you doing here?” He asked Kelly who still looked the same. It’s not like Leo left Sunshine city for a long time.

“I was here for the excursion. I heard that the tech company would be hosting an event where students from far and wide will be able to tour the company and learn a few things. I didn’t want to miss my chance to meet Dr. Cartel so I came to Sky City two days ago.” She explained. ‘That explains it.’ Leo thought.

He looked at Logan who looked lost and Leo introduced him to Kelly. “Um... Logan, this is Kelly, a classmate of mine back in Sunshine city.”

Logan faced him. “Kelly?! As in your nemesis?” He scrutinized. Leo felt a bit embarrassed and he could see question marks dancing on Kelly’s head. She had a look of total confusion on her face.

“Nemesis??” She probed. Leo grinned and stylishly gave Logan a piercing glance his eyes.

“This is my friend Logan. And I told him about our ‘blind academic competition’ back at Sunshine city.” He explained to Kelly. She was still confused since she wasn’t actually aware of what he meant.

“What blind competition?” she asked again. Back at Sunshine City high, Leo usually competed with Kelly for high grades. She was totally unaware about his zeal to beat her, which explained the confusion. Leo grunted and looked at Logan as if trying to tell him something. ‘Is it everything you must say?!’

“You know what, nevermind that.” Leo changed the subject, “Anyways, how did you know about the excursion?” He asked. A part of him wanted to know how she knew about the excursion and another part of him wanted to just get rid of the previous embarrassing conversation.

“Are you kidding? I’m a big fan of Dr. Cartel’s work on neural technology and Genetic enhancement. What science geek wouldn’t know about this event?” she said excitedly. Leo raised a brow, ‘Science geek? I thought you never really cared.’ He thought. The way he saw Kelly, she was a genius who didn’t care about anything else. It was at this moment they were allowed to go into the building.

THRL building was sixty-eight floors tall. The interior was so wide was beautiful. There were people wearing suits and lab coats and they were all going about their busy lives. Leo, Logan and the other people who came for the excursion all walked to the reception table.

“Welcome to The Hermit Research Laboratories. What can I help you people with?” The receptionist asked. She was a young looking woman but the faint lines at the corner of her eyes proved that she was older than her full appearance–probably in her late thirties. She wore a black suit and black trousers and tied her long black hair into a pony tail. She was a beauty in her league.

One of the guys that came for the excursion went forward. “Um… We’re here for the excursion–” he was interrupted by the receptionist before he could complete his sentence.

“Oh, yes of course. Dr. Cartel has been expecting you,” she made a call first and when she was done, distributed the identity cards to the corresponding owners before leading the way. “This way please.” As she led the way to the elevator. There were two elevators side by side so they split up and went to the forty-second floor. When they got there, a man wearing a lab coat and a pair of glasses came over.

“You must all be the students here for the excursion, since you all look like little teenage students.” He laughed at his dry joke… it wasn’t even a joke at all. Seeing that nobody was laughing, he cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses, “My name is Dr. John Rory and I’m your tour guide today.” He said in a serious tone and he started showing them around.

Leo brought his camera and was taking pictures of the lab. There were different sections in the building and they all dealt with specific purposes like the engineering department, pharmaceutical department–where drugs were manufactured. He remembered THRL bringing out their polio cure three years ago, after an outbreak in Africa. They even had a robotics department which he was also quite interested in. He marveled at the magnificent creation of the place.

“Now this is the genetics department,” Dr. Rory said as he led them through the spacious lab. He already made them all wear coats and nose masks so they didn't contaminate anything. “This is where we are trying to alter genetic codes. This is not an easy thing to do. THRL as been on this project for two years now. And for as many of you may know, we have finally been making progress with the discovery.” He explained passionately.

“Any questions?” He asked, A tall and slim guy raised his hand to ask a question. “Yes,” Dr. Rory signaled for him to speak.

“Where’s the bathroom?” the boy asked. Some of them laughed while Leo just kept his face expressionless. He was actually laughing inside because that was actually a wrong time to ask that question. Dr. Rory seemed prepared and described the rest room to the guy. After the boy left, another person raised his hand.

“What were the new discoveries made in the recent genetic project you are working on?” Dr. Rory was somehow speechless. It was a good question but the answer to it was classified. As Dr. Rory opened his mouth to say something, a very stout man appeared from the side of the students.

“Well the answer to that question, you see, is actually classified. But you will know soon enough.” The man said. Leo opened his eyes wide in astonishment and excitement. The man who spoke was naturally Dr. Cartel B. Jenson, the author of the Gene enhancement book he had been reading and the CEO of THRL. He never really thought they would see this huge celebrity figure that day because he was supposed to be a very busy man.

Dr. Cartel walked over to Dr. Rory’s side. “I’ll take it from here.” He said as he dismissed Dr. Rory. He nodded and walked away, then Dr. Cartel turned to face Leo and the others.

“So,” Dr. Cartel said as he rubbed his hands together like someone getting ready to work, “What have we here.” Kelly who was an enthusiast of Dr. Cartel, went forward and shook his hands.

“Good morning Mr… I mean Dr. Cartel. I’m… I’m Kelly Martin, a great fan of your work. I’ve read your book on neural technology, and the most famous Gene enhancement…” She said with great excitement. Leo was feeling the same way but was trying his very best to suppress his emotions. Kelly was super excited and it was like meeting her idol.

“Looks like someone just met her god.” Logan said to Leo. He gave Logan a disdainful stare.

“Who wouldn’t be excited to meet the scientist who made a breakthrough in Gene enhancement?!” He said. If it wasn’t for his strong will which made him able to suppress his emotions, he would have joined Kelly in adoring Dr. Cartel.

Dr. Cartel seemed to like Kelly and he kept answering her questions. Leo suddenly thought of something and decided to ask.

“Dr. Cartel,” he said with a soft tone and everyone suddenly looked at him. “If you say that the breakthrough you made in the gene enhancement project is classified, why put it in your book?” The ‘nerds’ there nodded their heads in agreement to the question and they all turned to face Dr. Cartel. The breakthrough Dr. Cartel made in gene enhancement was the fact that he was already able to alter the genes of living organisms to a certain extent successfully but the aim of the project was to alter some specific traits which he succeeded in doing but the genes of living organisms are like a line of dominoes, once one is affected, the others get affected too. But at least he had already reached a considerable extent and learning from his mistakes, he’ll be able to make something better.

The scientist stroke his chin, “The answer to that question… I don’t know,” He said. They all raised their brows and looked at him with confusion written all over their faces.

“But,” He continued, “What I do know, is that the information concerning the breakthrough cannot be disclosed. This is for some general reasons that we should all know like it being weaponized…” Leo was a bit shocked.

“So what you’re saying is that the project can be weaponized?” He asked again. Dr. Cartel was at loss for words.

“In the wrong hands… yes. Anything can be weaponized in the wrong hands.” He replied. Leo noted a few points making him look like a journalist.

“In your website, you mentioned that there was a new element that was discovered in the outskirts of Sky-hills called ‘Albertium’. What’s so special about this element?” Leo probed. He was actually thinking that Dr. Cartel would probably ignore the question and maybe change the subject but instead he smiled.

“I was getting to that actually.” He said, as he moved towards a hologram projector and he explained the things about the element. “Albertium is an element which if we say should be in the periodic table, would most likely not fit in. If it does, it will act as a radioactive element. But the element is more special. Normal radioactivity is the spontaneous decay of the element thereby emitting alpha, beta and gamma particles. Albertium on the other hand, emits not only alpha, Beta and gamma particles but also something else. Something we don’t understand yet…” He explained.

“Is that thing the one that led to the breakthrough?” Leo suddenly asked. Dr. Cartel smiled at him.

“What is your name?” He asked him.

“I’m Leonardo… Leonardo Anderson.” Leo replied nervously. Inside, he was feeling himself. ‘He asked for my name. I must be very smart and handsome’ I thought, stroking my hair in my imagination but Dr. Cartel’s voice brought me back to reality.

"Leonardo… Since you are so interested in this new element, this is my business card. You can swing by whenever you have time.” Dr. Cartel said as he brought out a card and handed it to him.